War or peace? U.S. faces a choice in the Georgia-Russia conflict and beyond

[IndianaGreen]

War or peace? U.S. faces a choice in the Georgia-Russia conflict and beyond

Author: John Wojcik
People's Weekly World Newspaper, 08/15/08 18:44

Georgia, in a geo-political sense, is an outpost of the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) that sits directly on the border of Russia on one side and close to the Middle Eastern theater of war and Central Asia on its other side. South Ossetia, which Georgia invaded, is at the crossroads of strategic oil and gas pipeline routes.

Georgia actually hooked up with NATO in a written agreement it signed in April 1999 at the very start of the war the alliance began against Yugoslavia. Georgia also has signed bi-lateral agreements with the U.S. Both sets of agreements are designed to protect Anglo-American oil interests in the Caspian Sea basin as well as pipeline routes. Since the signing of the 1999 agreement the country has received large amounts of U.S. military equipment.

There is plenty of evidence that Georgia acted with at least the knowledge, if not the encouragement, of the neo-cons in control in Washington.

In mid-July, Georgian and U.S. troops held a joint military exercise called “Immediate Response” that we now know involved 1,200 U.S. and 800 Georgian troops.

The Associated Press reported July 15 on an announcement by the Georgian Ministry of Defense that had stated “U.S. and Georgian troops will train for three weeks at the Vaziani military base” near the Georgian capital, Tbilisi. The exercises were completed less than a week before the Aug. 7 Georgian attack on South Ossetia.

http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/13548/